More adults than ever are undergoing stomach surgeries to lose weight. Now these same surgeries may become available to obese teens and children.

Four major children's hospitals are participating in a large-scale study this spring to determine if the surgeries can benefit young people. The Federal Food and Drug Agency approved the study in February 2007.

The surgical techniques to be used include gastric bypass, in which doctors staple a pouch off from the rest of the stomach and connect it to the small intestine. Another technique is laparoscopic gastric banding, in which doctors put an elastic collar around the stomach to limit food intake.

Children rarely undergo such operations because they are risky and the long-term results are unknown. Over 177,000 adults had such surgeries last year.

However, a small study done at New York University Medical Center found that teens could benefit. Doctors operated on 53 teenage boys and girls, who had an average weight of 297 pounds. Most lost over half their weight after their surgeries. However, fifteen had complications that were mostly minor. This study appears in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery.

Other hospitals participating in the new experiment are University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian.

Labels: FDA, gastric bypass, weight loss surgery